And our winner!

First of all, I want to congratulate our players: Jason Lane, Martyn McHale, Joe Bessinger, Bob Stec, Rick Diehl, Ed Bosnar, Jannette Larsen, Radi Murad, and Travis Pelkie. We had a nice turnout this time and most folks did pretty well, and I could tell that there was not a lot of internet search-engine cheating going on.

Well, except for Travis, who rather shamefacedly owned up to it, but he actually didn't do that well even with that extra edge. This warms my cold black heart as I DO try to make these at least somewhat impervious to a Google search. These are not for the lazy! (To Mr. Pelkie's credit, in the same breath as his confession he took himself out of the running for the prize; a very Steve Rogers move that warms my black heart even more, so he still gets a gold star.) Well done all of you!

Though no one got a hundred percent, a couple of our players came close. First, I'll give you all the answers, and then we'll announce our winner. Okay? Here we go!

***

1. What barbarian hero was teased in an early issue of SAVAGE TALES as "coming soon" but never actually showed up in a story at all?

No one got this one. But in Savage Tales #3, we were given an intro to Jim Steranko's TALON... a full-page pinup and a little paragraph about how awesome the feature was going to be.

Talon was going to appear in a future issue of Savage Tales, but never appeared anywhere except as a couple of poster prints.

Apparently Marvel rejected it and so Steranko was going to publish it himself, but that never happened either. A couple of people got SQUEAKINGLY close by guessing Arquel of Argos, who appeared in a prose story in that very same issue, but the question very specifically said 'in a story.' Arquel was in a story; Talon was not. We're still waiting for Steranko to get around to his promised Talon adventure, along with the revised Chandler: Red Tide and the remaining volumes of Steranko's History of Comics. Not holding our breath for any of those, though.

2. Who was the first Ka-Zar, before Kevin Plunder, and where did he first appear in comics?

The first Ka-Zar was David Rand, a pulp character created by Bob Byrd for Martin Goodman's pulp magazine line.

Ka-Zar was not a huge hit, and folded after three issues. But he found a new home in comics, as a backup feature beginning in Marvel Comics #1.

He fared somewhat better in his four-color incarnation, appearing in just under thirty issues of Marvel and Marvel Mystery Comics.

3. And speaking of Kevin Plunder, how did he meet Shanna the She-Devil, and who showed up to screw up their wedding?

The current Ka-Zar met Shanna the She-Devil in issues one and two of the first run of his own magazine back in 1974, when they were both captured by Malgato the Red Wizard.

Kevin and Shanna hit it off pretty well, as you can see.

However, Shanna didn't take up residence in the Savage Land until considerably later, when Ka-Zar got another shot at his own title in the early 1980s... and they did not make it legal until #29 of that SECOND run of Ka-Zar's own comic, at which point the demon Belasco showed up to mess with everything. But they did manage to get married in spite of the demonic gate-crasher.

As far as I know they still are happily married.

4. According to Roy Thomas, where is Belit, queen of the Black Corsairs, originally from, and why is she commanding a shipload of pirates?

Belit is a Shemite. She was originally a princess in Asgalun and heir to the throne, but her nasty uncle took it out from under her. Piracy is her way of raising a war chest, really.

Though she digs life on the sea, and seems to enjoy riches for their own sake, as well.

5. And according to Brian Wood?

She is still of royal blood, but not nearly as invested in regaining her kingdom.

The Dark Horse version of the story never really got into Belit's origins as such; she just showed up one day and freed a bunch of slaves and led a rebellion against their owners, whereupon they stole a ship and pledged allegiance to her, and since then sailed up and down the Black Coast looting and pillaging and such, as pirates do.

6. Stalker was "the man with the stolen soul." Who actually stole it and why?

That was the demon Dgrth.

However, technically, he didn't STEAL it. Stalker traded his soul to Dgrth for a warrior's prowess and then had buyer's remorse.

Which, really, puts it on Stalker himself. That's what happens when you trade with demons, dude. But whatever. Only Martyn McHale and Keith Morgan mentioned that nuance but most everyone who answered named Dgrth, so I gave full credit to them for it. Hell, if Stalker's own writer Paul Levitz wouldn't acknowledge the difference between making a bad bargain and being the victim of a theft, well, I'm not going to make an issue of it.

7. Who was the Black Queen and why was Tarzan of the Apes upset with her?

That was Kyra, in Tarzan #217.

When the youthful Kyra escaped the slavers who murdered her father, the valley people welcomed her. But Kyra was filled with hate for anyone with a white skin, and immediately had the valley subjugated. Pitted against a black lion, Tarzan befriends the beast and together they rout the Queen’s guard. But, before the valley people can take their revenge on Kyra, Tarzan stops the cycle of vengeance and hatred. He teaches the lesson that people with differences must live together in peace. And that's One to Grow On.

8. Tarzan has Jane Porter... Ka-Zar has Shanna the She-Devil. But who's the main squeeze of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle...

...in the original comics?

That was Bob Reynolds.

...in the Tanya Roberts movie?

Vic Casey, played by Ted Wass.

...on television, in the fifties and in the nineties?

In the fifties TV show it was Bob Rayburn, played by Chris Drake; in the 1990s version it was Matt Cutter. played by John Allan Nelson.

I have to admit to having a soft spot for the 1990s Sheena... it used to run in syndication on Sunday afternoons here, and it filled the void left by Queen of Swords. Don't judge me!

9. Who fought a Silver Beast one night in a lonely English inn?

That was Solomon Kane.

"The Silver Beast Beyond Torkertown" appeared in Savage Sword of Conan #14, an original story from Doug Moench and Mike Zeck. I'm sentimental about that one because it was my first issue of that magazine.

10. Korak, Son of Tarzan, spent most of his time at DC Comics looking for his girl Meriem. Who actually took her?

Arab slavers. Who eventually gave her to a tribe of lizard people.

Though he got close a couple of times, Korak never did get Meriem back; the book was canceled before he caught up with her.

11. What unfortunate transformation befell Spider-Man in the Savage Land, who caused it, and who helped Ka-Zar reverse it?

Brain Child used an old device of Magneto's to devolve Spider-Man into a sort of man-spider thing.

With the help of Karl Lykos and the Angel, this was reversed. It all happened in the early issues of Marvel Fanfare. The X-Men hung around for more Savage Land shenanigans with Ka-Zar in the next couple of issues, and the whole thing was eventually collected in a trade paperback (re-issued more than once, by the way) that has sadly long been out of print.

Worth looking for though. Probably find it pretty cheap at a con somewhere.

12. Who was behind King Kull losing the throne of Valusia in the pages of Kull the Destroyer?

Thulsa Doom.

Really, with Kull sooner or later it's always Thulsa Doom.

13. What was the name of Ironwolf's ship?

That was the Limerick Rake. I thought that would be a stumper but almost everyone got it. Lots of Ironwolf fans out there, clearly. (Travis Pelkie, on the other hand, ventured "The Blowjob Queen? Hey, it's Chaykin!")

14. Name the French murderer Solomon Kane pursued to darkest Africa, and the hulking native killer he enlists against Kane. Bonus point if you can also tell us who actually killed this Gallic murderer's giant henchman before Kane could get to him.

Ah, that was Le Loup, who caused Kane to utter one of my favorite lines ever...

"Men shall die for this." What a great moment. And Howard Chaykin's art really sells it, too. The main reason this question's in here is so I'd have an excuse to run that page here again.

Anyway, Kane chased Le Loup to darkest Africa, where he had to contend with not just Le Loup, but also Gulka the Gorilla-Slayer.

Fortunately for Kane, a pissed-off gorilla gets to Gulka first.

Ouch.

15. And finally, leaving out Tarzan of the Apes itself, what Edgar Rice Burroughs original Tarzan book has been adapted for comics more than any other?

This surprised me; it's another one that almost NO ONE got. (Keith Morgan nailed it, though.) Because I'd have thought this was relatively easy if you know the books at all. It's Jungle Tales of Tarzan.

The Dell Comics did it. Burne Hogarth did it. DC did it. Charlton did it. Malibu did it. Gold Key did it. Marvel did it. And Dark Horse just rolled out a new version. Of the original Burroughs books, this one is irresistible to comics publishers, because it's twelve short stories-- any of which slots pretty neatly into a done-in-one comic book. Moreover, these are all flashback stories to Tarzan's boyhood, before he met Jane Porter. (For some reason, Jane seems to inconvenience a lot of people doing adaptations; she gets left out of a great many comics, film, and TV versions of Tarzan.) Now, rarely does a publisher do ALL twelve stories from the book, because some of them involve young Tarzan's ongoing feud with a local witch doctor and are frankly a bit racist. But most of the others are about Tarzan trying to figure out this or that bit of human behavior versus animal behavior and are often quite funny and endearing.

So those are the answers. How did our contestants do?

There were fifteen questions though some of them had multiple parts, and i awarded a point for each correct answer. So even if you couldn't name ALL Sheena's boyfriends, you got credit for the one or two you did know. There were twenty-four points possible. Third place goes to Martyn McHale, with thirteen; second goes to Jason Lane, with fifteen; and our winner is Bob Stec, with TWENTY out of twenty-four. Well done sir! Email me with an address and I'll get your prize out to you.

And everyone else, thanks for playing. Hope you had fun-- I sure did.

See you next week!